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Friday, 21 October 2011

Getting my bits arranged...

I spent most of it (probably about 7 hours or so) literally just clipping hundreds of bits of sprue, to place them in money bags for much better organisation and space usage.

One thing I find with making things easier for future conversions in this way, is that it's hard to overstate the utility of greater and greater subdivision - at least until the point where you're not even half-filling the bags anymore!

For instance, I went from having 16-20 Eldar Heavy Weapon Sprues [some pieces were already clipped, and loose in bits boxes, so I don't really know how many I had] simply lying around taking up an inordinate amount of space, to having separate bags for each [Starcannon, BL, EML, etc] with their ammo compartments too. I also collected the armour 'wings' from the Wave Serpent turret to a single bag (I tend not to glue these on the model, to facilitate swaps. I couldn't be bothered trying to get magnets in such a small space.)

I have separate bags for Blood Angel and Space Wolf ranged and CC weaponry, although my Dark Angels are all put together, and my BA CC weapons got consolidated in with the Space Marine assault weapons, be they from the Assault Marine sprue, the Tactical Sprue (Sergeants') or the Command Sprue. Even the Devastator Power Fist got thrown in, because I didn't have enough Power Fists, and certainly not enough USE for them, to earn a separate billing. Bolt Pistols, as standard armament of Assault Marines, got placed in here to - especially since it makes it much easier to pair arms if they are kept close together. The Tactical box's grenade throwing arm is also included with these, as grenades aren't a ranged weapon, but a CC upgrade.

With the Dark Angels though, I have arrayed them differently. Because I 'only' had 5 sprues to clip from for the DA, I put all of their weaponry, ranged and combat, together, also collating all of the 'body parts' pieces - heads, shoulder pads, torsos, backpacks, and of course the Terminator legs.

The other were treated differently, though with my Space Wolves only the heads were separated from the others, and my Chaos Space Marine pieces are all amassed together - though my Khorne Berzerkers obviously occupy a separate bag.

My Assault Marine torsos were kept apart from the Tactical ones, and the legs, backpacks, heads, 'special' heads, [Sergeants, flamers etc] Blood Angel torsos (though these were with BA heads and legs) , Blood Angel backpacks, Jump Packs and Blood Angel Jump Packs were all independently stored too. Perhaps interestingly, the Assault and Tactical legs were put together - since the next Marines I'm going to make are likely to be more ASM for my Blood Angels, why bother?

Bolters got special billing,l though the Command Squad Bolter, with the funky special design, got placed with the Flamers, Meltaguns and Plasma guns in a bag of their own. Special pistols also got grouped like 'heavier' Special Weapons, so Infernus Pistols, Hand Flamers and Plasma Pistols all end up together, I think quite fittingly.

Bling was a bit of a special case. Grenades were left on sprue, though the sprue was trimmed quite significantly. Ammo pouches, Purity Seals and Combat Knives went together, while the more esoteric choices, such as Auspexes, Missile Launcher Ammo, Tabards, back banners, incense, targeters, holsters, loose Bolt Pistols, name-plate Shoulder Pads, and the ASM Sergeant handless arm, were in another bag altogether.

In summation, while what I've done today certainly doesn't look like much, I've saved myself a couple square feet of space, and made future building/kit-bashing/converting a MUCH easier task. Oh - and I also opened a bunch of piddly little bags you get bases in, and bagged them in 30s. That helps - it's the average Troops complement of most of my armies, except of course Orks where it's a Unit...

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